Thursday, November 03, 2011

Greece's property tax rate would drop about 1% next year, under the Town's $55.6 million tentative budget plan.

Fees for drainage, lighting & sanitary sewer districts would rise.

Overall taxes including those fees would remain stable.

If approved, the tax rate would fall from $6.40 per $1,000 of assessed value to $6.34 per $1,000. The drainage district fee would rise from $16.00 per unit to $16.75 per unit; the lighting district fee would rise from $3.35 per $1,000 to $3.93 per $1,000; and the sanitary sewer fee would rise from $38.89 per unit to $38.95 per unit.

If approved, 2012 would be the third year in a row that the property tax rate decreased.

"We started out by saying that we do not want to increase property taxes for Greece residents and then we went from there." ~~ Supervisor John Auberger.

He said a "millstone" for 2012 was absorbing a mandated increase of nearly $1 million in the town's contribution to its employee retirement system. Almost one-tenth of the town's entire budget — $5.2 million — will be paid out in retirement system contributions next year.

"You have to deal with that and it is so significant that it really sets you back and you have to look at other areas in the budget in order to make it work." ~~ John Auberger (telling you he is cutting something, somewhere!)

Auberger claims residents will see no reduction in their town services.

"There will be no difference. This is a bare-bones budget and for the third year in a row, there's a reduction in the tax rate. Residents will see the same fine level of services next year as they're accustomed to."

The town was able to increase spending on some amenities for residents, including an additional $15,000 for library materials.

An additional police officer was also added to the Greece Police Dept.

The total tax levy, including special districts, is set at $36 million, which would be an increase of about 1% over 2011.

SCATS ~~ Where to begin?? First of all, there is a REDUCTION IN SERVICES NEARLY EVERY YEAR in the Town of Greece! They just won't tell you what/where they are. You have to find out on your own. Example: Take a look around town. Unrepaired potholes, cracked surfaces and sunken manholes are everywhere ~ Fetzner Rd., Maiden Ln., Mt. Read Blvd., Stone Rd., Flynn Rd., Harvest Dr., Black Walnut ... to name a few places!

Secondly, I thought the extra library money was to keep Barnard Crossing open longer hours and to get Andy Conlon re-elected for doing so, not for new materials. Or was Andy Conlon taking credit for something that wasn't quite true? The Republicans would never do that, right??? Ha-ha-ha-ha!!!!!

Thirdly, Chief Todd has made NO secret of the fact that he wants more cops, two more police dogs AND a brand spanking new HQ at the Vince Tofany complex. They've already got a group looking into making it happen! I'm pretty darned sure that's with Auggie's okay, because everyone knows who really runs everything in Greece, don't we? (wink, wink)

10 comments:

John Auberger rivals Houdini as a master of illusion. Spending goes up every year, but taxes don't? Either the town is sitting on too much of our money or they borrowing us into bankruptcy or they are picking our pockets with higher fees and assessments while we are looking the other way. Probably all three!

To 11:55AM ~~ No. The dog has already begun training which should be completed soon. Baxter is talking about asking for additional canines though. It's my understanding that the cost of K-9's to the PD can be quite high since they must pay OT to the officer for the care of the dog, in addition to paying for the training, food, vet bills, etc. This is true even when the dogs are donated.

Yep.....the Town claims taxes will be flat and then like I posted before...........WHAMMY.....the good old tax assessor will send you a nice letter letting you know your home value just increased by several thousand dollars. So, the town will get more revenue because the assessment base will go up. We WILL pay more taxes. Guarenteed.

What is truly frustrating is to have a leader tell you that taxes are down, but "service fees" are up. Since taxes are deductible on fed taxes, the transfer of taxes to non deductible fees is a double whammy on the real costs. Please, please, please, if you're going to raise the cost of living here, at least let me deduct it from my fed taxes.Bad enough to lie about the cost of living here, but you don't need to rub our noses in it!

The rumor mill has gone on line and DPW employees have been told they will be looking at lower pay next year.

What will be interesting to see is how much FIRE tax goes up to pay for overtime and equipment expended in Binghamton. Anybody heard of a check coming to either North Greece or Greece Ridge from Binghamton?

Well I think we can thank the dems for 1 thing. They kept harping on how the town budget is always under wraps until after elections, and its true the hearing will be on the 9th but I have never before seen so much about a proposed town budget in the paper. Except for still waiting until after election day this is the way it should be. Show us what you will do. Thanks Rita and Wendy for getting Augie to do the right thing. Keep it up after you are elected!